(SPOILERS AHEAD!!!)
It’s hard for me to pick what my favorite scary movie is. If you ask me which one I want to watch, I’ll take anything with ghosts, chainsaw killers, or creepy found-footage. However, the one element of horror that I think takes any film from good to great is the appearance of one actress who outlives everyone else. To give you an idea of who I’m talking about, here are some of my favorite movies with a ‘final girl’:
–The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original, of course)
–House of 1000 Corpses
–The VVitch
–The Shining
–Midsommar
–The Silence of the Lambs
–Rosemary’s Baby
–Carrie
We don’t see the ‘final boy’ character as often. Even though movies like Hereditary offer up a masculine version, it doesn’t create the same movie-viewing experience. This is because ‘the final girl’ is symbolic of feminine resilience. The girl sells her soul to Satan. The girl becomes the cult leader. The girl wields the chainsaw herself. Ultimately, she breaks a mold that she was never going to fit into and steps into her personal power.
At the start of the movie, she is typically viewed as an innocent and hyper-feminized character. By the end, the final girl has usually gone through hell and back (sometimes literally) and abandons her old self. Traditionally, the final girl character type serves a heteronormative standard of using the ‘loss of innocence’ theme to entertain male audiences. Simultaneously, the last standing survivor is usually who audiences root for, regardless of their gender. When evaluating the trope through a more progessive lens, the inclusion of ‘the final girl’ in horror movies deepens the meaning of her survival because of her capability to endure pain beyond expectation.
Next time you find yourself brave enough to watch a horror movie, see if you’re able to guess who the final girl will be. She’s sure to surprise you.
HCXO,
Aimee